Facebook, Cause Marketing Help Boost Small Bank

A local Michigan bank is successfully tapping into the power of Facebook. Hard to believe; who "likes" their bank on Facebook?

A lot of people, it turns out.

The Bank of Ann Arbor, with only six locations, has nearly 20,000 fans, or "likes" on Facebook.

To compare, JPMorgan Chase, the nation's biggest bank, has 20,071 fans, although the bank's Chase Community Giving Facebook page has 3.3 million likes. So there is something to cause marketing.

In 2006, the Bank of Ann Arbor started advertising itself as the one that “helps.” President and CEO Tim Marshall said even during the darkest years of the recent economic downturn, the bank kept boosting its commitments to area non-profits.

As the bank approached its fifteenth anniversary, Marshall, also acting CMO, challenged his ad agency to find a way to increase its presence on Facebook. “I told them we had 279 Facebook fans, which was unacceptable."

So the ad agency, Ann Arbor's Perich + Partners, developed the Sweet 15 Local Charity Drive. Consumers who clicked the “like” button on the bank's Facebook page could then nominate and vote for area non-profits. The 15 groups with the most votes split $75,000 from the bank.

“Rather than tout how much we've grown in 15 years, let's celebrate by giving back,” said Ernie Perich, president of the ad agency and a bank director. He called the campaign an evolution of the “Helps” blitz.

The Bank of Ann Arbor got more than 16,000 fans on Facebook 60 days after the charity drive started. The drive attracted more than 100,000 votes.

Although the bank is based in the home of the University of Michigan, college students are not its bread-and-butter. The bank is mainly for area businesses, professors and other professionals. “We don't offer free checking, and we never have,” said Marshall, who started his banking career 27 years ago at American Fletcher National Bank in Indianapolis.

He was so pleased with the results of the Sweet 15 event on Facebook, he ordered up another marketing program from Perich last fall. Perich decided to keep the bank's same year-old ad format poking fun at bigger, out-of-town banks because consumers were already voluntarily sending their ideas for new ads to the bank.

Each radio, print and billboard ad used the line “Non-local banks think...,” like this one that won Perich several local Addy awards in 2011:

The ad refers to legendary college football coaches' the U of M's Bo Schembechler and his rival Woody Hayes from Ohio State.

People were asked to “Build A Billboard” on Facebook for the bank. Perich created an app that let fans see how their ads for the “Non-local banks think...” would look on billboards.

The Bank of Ann Arbor gathered 700-plus headlines from over 400 unique users during the contest. The Grand Prize winner, Janine Hutchinson, collected $1,000 and her name on the billboard for her “Non-local banks think Mani Osteria plays for the Tigers.” (It's a local restaurant.)

Marshall said the Facebook promotions and ads are working, boosting awareness and positive feedback.

Indeed, Cause Marketing Forum of Rye, N.Y., says 47% of consumers have bought a brand at least monthly that supports a cause, representing a 47% jump in 2012 from 2010. And 39 % more people “would recommend” cause-related brands this year compared to 2010.

Boosting Facebook fans is one thing, but Marshall said the Bank of Ann Arbor's ongoing outdoor, radio and print campaign has played a role in the company's eye-popping growth over the last two years.

The bank enjoyed record growth in earnings and capital in both 2010 and 2011. It acquired the failed New Liberty Bank in Plymouth, Michigan in 2010, which translated to $70 million in assets, but still the bank grew by an additional $76 million in assets that year. In the past two full years, the bank's assets have jumped by more than $230 million, or almost 43%.

That growth helped boost the Bank of Ann Arbor from the seventh largest bank serving the area, in terms of deposits, in 2010, to fourth last year.

“If we detect something is not working, we'd fix it,” Marshall said of the bank's ad strategy. “But let's not change it if it's working.”

I'm an independent journalist who has covered automotive marketing since 1994- the longest consecutive tenure on the beat than any other US reporter. From 1996 to early 2010 I was the Detroit Bureau Chief of Advertising Age, a post I had held earlier at Adweek. I have wo...